Our Steps are Rooted in Purpose
As a senior citizen, I have been an eyewitness to many changes as they have occurred in the fields of education, diet, makeup, child rearing, and the list could go on and on. Every few years there is a call to return to the basics, to revisit the foundation or origin of a theory to see how simplicity might clarify implementation. This reevaluation may even create a clean slate where the removal of unsuccessful methods will lead the way to fresh ideas and strategies.
Today is just such a day for examining why we were created and what are we supposed to be doing as believers. To be clear, even if we don’t know why we were created, we were created for a purpose. As we look at the question of why we were created as humans and more specifically why we were created as individuals, let’s look at the beginning of all things. Let’s look at Genesis.
Genesis 1:26-28 talks about the creation of humankind and tells us in no uncertain terms that humankind was created to have rule over earth and care for all creatures from the fish to the animals that fly. We are to be stewards of the earth and to utilize the earth to provide for our comfort and to sustain ourselves from the abundance that the earth offers.
Not only are we told the whys of our creation, but we are told about the how’s of our creation. In Genesis 1:3, God said let there be light. In Genesis 1:6, God said let there be a firmament, and in Genesis 1:14, God said let there be lights in the firmament. God in his authority spoke all of these things, but when it came to the creation of man, God spoke in the tone of love and said, “Let us make man in our image.” He put his hands in the process. God scooped up dust from the earth and “created man in his own image.”
God did not end his work on the outward appearances of man. God then gave of himself, so that man could also have his godly image on the inside. God “breathed the breath of live into his nostrils.” God spoke love and set humankind apart to commune with him and to tend and have dominion over the earth.
Proverbs 8:31 says God rejoices in the habitable part of his earth; and his delights were with the sons of men. Humankind was made differently from all other creation so that we could worship God and have communion with Him. humans were given a moral compass, personality, and spiritual capabilities to commune with God like none of his other creations.
The creation of humankind shows great vision by a great God. God created humankind on the sixth day when the world was ready to support God’s magnificent creation, humankind. Vision and great planning also point to spiritual order that provides guidance on how we should live our lives daily and how we must relate to our fellowman to please God:
1. Humans are not greater or before God: Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God had no help from humankind!
2. Humans are free agents: It would be impossible to “walk humbly with God” if humans were pre-programed with a preset code to follow God and did not have the option of deciding to walk with God or chose another path. To walk humbly means I chose to walk before God who is the head of all creation and I live and breathe because God is my source. It means I have chosen to follow after God and not to put my desires, my phobias, or my will before God.
3. Our communion with God is important: I invite your attention to Genesis 3:9: And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Even when we do things that are not godly, God yearns for us to repent and return to him.
As we seek to remain in communion with God, there is a great correlation between how we operate as stewards and how we express love as we follow the great commission to make disciples of all nations and to “rescue those who are perishing; to hold back those stumbling towards slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).
God created mankind without the help of the creature man, and he did so with great love. God gave man free will yet calls him in love to come and commune with him.
God has assigned us as caretakers of this earth and has assigned us to work to compel others to repent and follow him.
Our steps are rooted in divine purpose.
